


The End of an Era

by TokiKurp



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: End of an era, Gen, Shiratorizawa, Shiratorizawa Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:35:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25078498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TokiKurp/pseuds/TokiKurp
Summary: The day had finally come, far sooner than he'd admit he had wanted it to.Shitatorizawa Day 6: Getting Back Together
Comments: 6
Kudos: 21
Collections: Shiratorizawa Fanweek 2020





	The End of an Era

The day had finally come, far sooner than he'd admit he had wanted it to. 

At the age of 87, Washijo Tanji was retiring after being the head coach for the Shiratorizawa boy’s team for quite the years. Forty-seven years of coaching some of the best players to form the strongest team in Miyagi. Forty-seven years of proudly wearing the maroon and white colours of Shiratorizawa and watching the boys that he trained go on to achieve bigger and better things.

What was he going to do now? Well...he was not sure yet. 

Even though he’d been preparing for this moment since January, it still hadn’t hit him that the day of his retirement had truly arrived.

He could travel and explore the rest of Japan. The places he never got to visit. He could go back to the place where he met his beloved wife and relive those dear memories. Maybe even find their first home, if it was still there. That would be nice. Of course, his beloved Granddaughter, Suzume, just graduated from Shiratorizawa only a few days ago. He could always make a trip to Kyoto to watch her play for his college.

Which he was already planning on doing.

His final practice had only concluded over half an hour ago and it was now finally starting to sink in. Today would be the last day he would enter this gym as the head coach of Shiratorizawa. He sighed and looked around his now empty office; forty-seven years of memory had been cleaned out over the weekend. Now bare it looked empty and lonesome.

But it wouldn’t stay bare much longer, Saito would be moving into this office by tomorrow. Starting tomorrow, he would be the new head coach of Shiratorizawa.

Washijo wasn't worried. Saito had shown that he could keep the Shiratorizawa tradition of training the strongest players going. And Saito had even been left in charge scouting out their new first years. Five new first years would be coming into Shiratorizawa in under a week thanks to Saito. 

He was already looking forward to the days when he'd read about Shiratorizawa’s victories under Saito. And even make the trip to Tokyo to watch them in nationals. 

He heard a knock at the door and Suzume poker her head in, who smiled brightly at her Grandfather. 

“Dad’s here to pick us up, Grandpa.” She announced. “Are you ready to go?”

“Almost, sweetheart. Just give me a moment and I’ll be ready.” He replied.

“Take all the time you need, Grandpa.” She smiled before closing the door. 

He stood there in the office for just a few more minutes. He sighed, hard to believe that he was actually about to _leave_ this office _for_ _good_. He no longer was the head coach of Shiratorizawa.

He was the former coach now. 

With one last look, he turned around and exited his office. The plate with his name had been removed and given to him earlier that afternoon at his farewell lunch. Many of the teachers were going to miss him and no doubt, his players were going to miss him. 

And to be honest, he was going to miss this place too. 

He looked up and chuckled. There was a volleyball that was stuck on the ceiling for  _ years _ and no one had been able to get it down. Not even Ushijima. It’d become a joke that it was stuck there for good and the person who could actually get it down would be a miracle worker. And it even became a little tradition for the third years to try and knock it down, the day before graduation. 

And like any other year, no person had been able to knock it down. It’d up there for good. 

“Long time no see, coach.” A sudden deep voice interrupted his string of thoughts. The elder hummed in curiouslity and turned around. 

There stood nine people at the exit, all wearing the familiar Shiratorizawa jackets that all the players wear. But these nine people were familiar and it made the elder chuckle.

“What are you all doing here?” He asked, walking up to one of the most unforgettable teams he'd ever trained. 

“We’re here to see you off!” Tendou exclaimed. “You’re on to bigger and better things as a retiree now, Tanji-kun!”

“And how did you all hear about this?” He already had an idea and that idea poked her head out from behind Ushijima. A big smile crossed her face as she flashed the peace sign.

“Of course you did.” Washijo sighed, but he couldn’t help but smile. “This is a very lovely surprise, I must admit.”

“We’re glad to hear that, coach.” Kawanishi said.

“And as a way to congratulate you on retiring, we’re treating you out to dinner.” Semi explained, pushing himself off the wall. 

“And at our old favorite restaurant!” Goshiki exclaimed excitedly.

Washijo chuckled and looked at the former team. He wanted to say no, but he couldn’t imagine how much work it took for all their schedules to line up. Plus, it was at the team’s favorite restaurant and they would be treating him out to dinner. 

“Alright, alright. Let’s go eat.”

As they made their way to the exit, the elder looked back one more time at the gym. It was in good hands, he knew that.

“So long, old friend.”

**Author's Note:**

> And Shiratorizawa week is done for me :(((
> 
> Thank you very much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this and please leave a kudos if you did! And why not leave me a comment? I enjoy getting feedback and hearing what your favorite part is makes me happy. It also makes me feel good as a writer ♡
> 
> Because I don't update here as much, if you want to see what I'm up to (and maybe yell at me to work on something), follow me on my Twitter, @TokiKurp ♡
> 
> Thank you again for reading and I hope to see you again soon.


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